Surprise Aardvark!

Morning of September 19, 1981. Saturday.

Summary of meaning: It seems in this dream there was a subliminal suppression of the preconscious (in me not wanting to wake immediately). I assume this due to the checkout dream exit symbolism being sustained by the cashier not being present. This took (presumably) a book being dropped behind the counter by the unknown dream character (preconscious assumed, as this act wakes the aardvark) to activate the transformation into my emergent consciousness, as a book is a symbol for a more discernible dawning focus and utilizing critical thinking skills.

This was a rather ridiculous dream as dreaming of talking animals is not that common for me. The location seems to be some sort of unusual atypical composite of my sister’s house (Loomis Street), the main La Crosse library, and with features of a grocery store.

At one point, there is an unknown female near what is seemingly a checkout (though I am not sure if she is buying groceries or checking out a book - it is quite ambiguous and hard to discern all the imagery at first). There is no one at the checkout however, and she also seems to drop something behind the counter on the other side, possibly a book.

My dream becomes much more vivid after this. A talking aardvark wanders out on four legs, from behind the counter, seemingly both complaining about people as well as talking about something he seems to find enjoyment in, wobbling off to my left and more in view at times. (It seems that what fell behind the counter possibly startled him, though there is a vague association that he was meant to be the cashier and somehow transformed.) My dream soon loses cohesion after this.

This seems like a typical dawning consciousness dream (though with unusual emergent consciousness waking symbolism), but why did my transitional waking self (projected form) become an aardvark prior to waking? It is possible that the talking aardvark came from an association with the blue aardvark from “The Pink Panther” cartoons. Apparently, one of the names, Claude - as used by the ant according to one resource, is my first name, and I vaguely recall having seen this particular cartoon at least a couple times, thus that might be the main influence here.

The dream exit symbolism here is based on a checkout analogy, as the dream self leaving the dream.